One late Christmas Ever Ebenezeer Scrooge was visited by three spirits who showed him the past, the present and the Yet To Come. This is like that, but with three reviewers & Shiny’s usual pop culture nonsense. Merry Christmas.

‘Doctor Who’ the series, like Doctor Who the character, has a tricky habit of regenerating, with producers and other creative types moving on. The current season, which ends this Saturday, marks the first time the show has made that transition since its 2005 relaunch – and even by the standards of such jumps this was a risky one.

Over the last few years Doctor Who has built a tradition of ending each season with a multi-part epic where the Doctor confronts a major enemy from his past. For the conclusion of the current season it was the turn of the Doctor’s old nemesis the Master.

Although Russell T Davies quite rightly has his mind focussed on the wider reception of this series, it’s hard to believe that he wasn’t chuckling with glee when he imagined the reaction of some fans to this episode…

For most of its life ‘Doctor Who’ was an odd fusion of ordinary television and itself. That’s something that we’ve lost sight of in the years it’s been away (even the TV movie was like ‘The X-Files’ ) …

‘Rose’, the first episode of the BBC’s much-hyped ‘Doctor Who’ relaunch had to not only bring ‘Doctor Who’ up to date for a 2005 audience, but also re-introduce a genre British TV hasn’t seen for a while…

The title gives you a pretty good idea of what the concept behind Russell T Davies’ superbly realised ITV mini-series is, and it’s a production which combines magic realism, wit, out-and-out-camp and manic pacing in roughly equal measure.